Homotopically equivalent simple loops on 2-bridge spheres in 2-bridge link complements (II)

This is the second of a series of papers which give a necessary and sufficient condition for two essential simple loops on a 2-bridge sphere in a 2-bridge link complement to be homotopic in the link complement. The first paper of the series treated the case of the \(2\) -bridge torus links. In this paper, we treat the case of \(2\) -bridge links of slope \(n/(2n+1)\) and \((n+1)/(3n+2)\) , where \(n \ge 2\) is an arbitrary integer.     

On cycles for the doubling map which are disjoint from an interval

Let \(T:[0,1]\rightarrow [0,1]\) be the doubling map and let \(0 . We say that an integer \(n\ge 3\) is bad for \((a,b)\) if all \(n\) -cycles for \(T\) intersect \((a,b)\) . Let \(B(a,b)\) denote the set of all \(n\) which are bad for \((a,b)\) . In this paper we completely describe the sets: $$\begin{aligned} D_2=\{(a,b) : B(a,b)\,\text {is finite}\} \end{aligned}$$ and $$\begin{aligned} D_3=\{(a,b) : B(a,b)=\varnothing \}. \end{aligned}$$ In particular, we show that if \(b-a<\frac{1}{6}\) , then \((a,b)\in D_2\) , and if \(b-a\le \frac{2}{15}\) , then \((a,b)\in D_3\) , both constants being sharp.     

Combinatorial solutions providing improved security for the generalized Russian cards problem

We present the first formal mathematical presentation of the generalized Russian cards problem, and provide rigorous security definitions that capture both basic and extended versions of weak and perfect security notions. In the generalized Russian cards problem, three players, Alice, Bob, and Cathy, are dealt a deck of \(n\) cards, each given \(a\) , \(b\) , and \(c\) cards, respectively. The goal is for Alice and Bob to learn each other’s hands via public communication, without Cathy learning the fate of any particular card. The basic idea is that Alice announces a set of possible hands she might hold, and Bob, using knowledge of his own hand, should be able to learn Alice’s cards from this announcement, but Cathy should not. Using a combinatorial approach, we are able to give a nice characterization of informative strategies (i.e., strategies allowing Bob to learn Alice’s hand), having optimal communication complexity, namely the set of possible hands Alice announces must be equivalent to a large set of \(t-(n, a, 1)\) -designs, where \(t=a-c\) . We also provide some interesting necessary conditions for certain types of deals to be simultaneously informative and secure. That is, for deals satisfying \(c = a-d\) for some \(d \ge 2\) , where \(b \ge d-1\) and the strategy is assumed to satisfy a strong version of security (namely perfect \((d-1)\) -security), we show that \(a = d+1\) and hence \(c=1\) . We also give a precise characterization of informative and perfectly \((d-1)\) -secure deals of the form \((d+1, b, 1)\) satisfying \(b \ge d-1\) involving \(d-(n, d+1, 1)\) -designs.     

Nonexistence of some quantum jump codes with specified parameters

Quantum jump codes (JC) are quantum codes which correct errors caused by quantum jumps. A spontaneous emission error design (SEED) has been introduced to construct quantum JC. In this paper the nonexistence of some \((n,m,t)_k\) -JCs is proved, where \(m={n-t\atopwithdelims ()k-t},\, k\ge t+1,\, \text{ and }\, (n,t,k)=(2k+1,1,k), (2k,2,k),(7,2,3),(8,3,4)\) . It is also shown that, for these parameters with \(t=1,2\) , the existence of an \((n,m,t)_k\) -JC is equivalent to that of a \(t-(n,k;m)\) -SEED.     

Fully inert subgroups of free Abelian groups

A subgroup \(H\) of an Abelian group \(G\) is called fully inert if \((\phi H + H)/H\) is finite for every \(\phi \in \mathrm{End}(G)\) . Fully inert subgroups of free Abelian groups are characterized. It is proved that \(H\) is fully inert in the free group \(G\) if and only if it is commensurable with \(n G\) for some \(n \ge 0\) , that is, \((H + nG)/H\) and \((H + nG)/nG\) are both finite. From this fact we derive a more structural characterization of fully inert subgroups \(H\) of free groups \(G\) , in terms of the Ulm–Kaplansky invariants of \(G/H\) and the Hill–Megibben invariants of the exact sequence \(0 \rightarrow H \rightarrow G \rightarrow G/H \rightarrow 0\) .     

Counting and Sampling Minimum Cuts in Genus g Graphs

Let \(G\) be a directed graph with \(n\) vertices embedded on an orientable surface of genus \(g\) with two designated vertices \(s\) and \(t\) . We show that computing the number of minimum \((s,t)\) -cuts in \(G\) is fixed-parameter tractable in \(g\) . Specifically, we give a \(2^{O(g)} n^2\) time algorithm for this problem. Our algorithm requires counting sets of cycles in a particular integer homology class. That we can count these cycles is an interesting result in itself as there are no prior results that are fixed-parameter tractable and deal directly with integer homology. We also describe an algorithm which, after running our algorithm to count minimum cuts once, can sample an \((s,t)\) -minimum cut uniformly at random in \(O(n \log n)\) time per sample.     

Additive mappings satisfying algebraic conditions in rings

Let \(R\) be any \((n+1)!\) -torsion free ring and \(F,D: R\rightarrow R\) be additive mappings satisfying \(F(x^{n+1})=(\alpha (x))^nF(x)+\sum \nolimits _{i=1}^n (\alpha (x))^{n-i}(\beta (x))^iD(x)\) for all \(x\in R\) , where \(n\) is a fixed integer and \(\alpha \) , \(\beta \) are automorphisms of \(R\) . Then, \(D\) is Jordan left \((\alpha , \beta )\) -derivation and \(F\) is generalized Jordan left \((\alpha , \beta )\) -derivation on \(R\) and if additive mappings \(F\) and \(D\) satisfying \(F(x^{n+1})=F(x)(\alpha (x))^n+\sum \nolimits _{i=1}^n (\beta (x))^iD(x)(\alpha (x))^{n-i}\) for all \(x\in R\) . Then, \(D\) is Jordan \((\alpha , \beta )\) -derivation and \(F\) is generalized Jordan \((\alpha , \beta )\) -derivation on \(R\) . At last some immediate consequences of the above theorems have been given.     

Construction of relative difference sets and Hadamard groups

‘There exist normal \((2m,2,2m,m)\) relative difference sets and thus Hadamard groups of order \(4m\) for all \(m\) of the form $$\begin{aligned} m= x2^{a+t+u+w+\delta -\epsilon +1}6^b 9^c 10^d 22^e 26^f \prod _{i=1}^s p_i^{4a_i} \prod _{i=1}^t q_i^2 \prod _{i=1}^u \left( (r_i+1)/2)r_i^{v_i}\right) \prod _{i=1}^w s_i \end{aligned}$$ under the following conditions: \(a,b,c,d,e,f,s,t,u,w\) are nonnegative integers, \(a_1,\ldots ,a_r\) and \(v_1,\ldots ,v_u\) are positive integers, \(p_1,\ldots ,p_s\) are odd primes, \(q_1,\ldots ,q_t\) and \(r_1,\ldots ,r_u\) are prime powers with \(q_i\equiv 1\ (\mathrm{mod}\ 4)\) and \(r_i\equiv 1\ (\mathrm{mod}\ 4)\) for all \(i, s_1,\ldots ,s_w\) are integers with \(1\le s_i \le 33\) or \(s_i\in \{39,43\}\) for all \(i, x\) is a positive integer such that \(2x-1\) or \(4x-1\) is a prime power. Moreover, \(\delta =1\) if \(x>1\) and \(c+s>0, \delta =0\) otherwise, \(\epsilon =1\) if \(x=1, c+s=0\) , and \(t+u+w>0, \epsilon =0\) otherwise. We also obtain some necessary conditions for the existence of \((2m,2,2m,m)\) relative difference sets in partial semidirect products of \(\mathbb{Z }_4\) with abelian groups, and provide a table cases for which \(m\le 100\) and the existence of such relative difference sets is open.     

Scattered linear sets generated by collineations between pencils of lines

Let \(A\) and \(B\) be two points of \(\mathrm{{PG}}(2,q^n)\) , and let \(\Phi \) be a collineation between the pencils of lines with vertices \(A\) and \(B\) . In this paper, we prove that the set of points of intersection of corresponding lines under \(\Phi \) is either the union of a scattered \(\mathrm{{GF}}(q)\) -linear set of rank \(n+1\) with the line \(AB\) or the union of \(q-1\) scattered \(\mathrm{{GF}}(q)\) -linear sets of rank \(n\) with \(A\) and \(B\) . We also determine the intersection configurations of two scattered \(\mathrm{{GF}}(q)\) -linear sets of rank \(n+1\) of \(\mathrm{{PG}}(2,q^n)\) both meeting the line \(AB\) in a \(\mathrm{{GF}}(q)\) -linear set of pseudoregulus type with transversal points \(A\) and \(B\) .     

Optimal initial value conditions for the existence of strong solutions of the Boussinesq equations

Consider the instationary Boussinesq equations in a smooth bounded domain \(\Omega \subseteq \mathbb {R}^3\) with initial values \(u_0 \in L^2_{\sigma }(\Omega )\) , \( \theta _0 \in L^2(\Omega )\) and gravitational force \(g\) . We call \((u,\theta )\) strong solution if \((u,\theta )\) is a weak solution and additionally Serrin’s condition \(u \in L^s(0,T; L^q(\Omega ))\) holds where \( 1 satisfy \(\frac{2}{s} + \frac{3}{q} =1\) . In this paper we show that \(\int _0^{\infty } \Vert e^{-tA} u_0 \Vert _q^s \, dt < \infty \) is necessary and sufficient for the existence of such a strong solution \((u,\theta )\) in a sufficiently small interval \([0,T[\, , 0 < T\le \infty \) . Furthermore we show that strong solutions are uniquely determined and that they are smooth if the data are smooth. The crucial point is the fact that we have required no additional integrability condition for \(\theta \) in the definition of a strong solution \((u,\theta )\) .     

Vertex transitive graphs from injective linear mappings

Based on a motivation coming from the study of the metric structure of the category of finite dimensional vector spaces over a finite field \(\mathbb {F}\) , we examine a family of graphs, defined for each pair of integers \(1 \le k \le n\) , with vertex set formed by all injective linear transformations \(\mathbb {F}^k \rightarrow \mathbb {F}^n\) and edges corresponding to pairs of mappings, \(f\) and \(g\) , with \(\lambda (f,g)= \dim \mathrm{Im }(f-g)=1 \) . For \(\mathbb {F}\cong \mathrm{GF }(q)\) , this graph will be denoted by \(\mathrm{INJ }_q(k,n)\) . We show that all such graphs are vertex transitive and Hamiltonian and describe the full automorphism group of each \(\mathrm{INJ }_q (k,n)\) for \(k . Using the properties of line-transitive groups, we completely determine which of the graphs \(\mathrm{INJ }_q (k,n)\) are Cayley and which are not. The Cayley ones consist of three infinite families, corresponding to pairs \((1,n),\,(n-1,n)\) , and \((n,n)\) , with \(n\) and \(q\) arbitrary, and of two sporadic examples \(\mathrm{INJ }_{2} (2,5)\) and \(\mathrm{INJ }_{2}(3,5)\) . Hence, the overwhelming majority of our graphs is not Cayley.     

On the non-existence of maximal difference matrices of deficiency 1

A \(k\times u\lambda \) matrix \(M=[d_{ij}]\) with entries from a group \(U\) of order \(u\) is called a \((u,k,\lambda )\) -difference matrix over \(U\) if the list of quotients \(d_{i\ell }{d_{j\ell }}^{-1}, 1 \le \ell \le u\lambda ,\) contains each element of \(U\) exactly \(\lambda \) times for all \(i\ne j.\) Jungnickel has shown that \(k \le u\lambda \) and it is conjectured that the equality holds only if \(U\) is a \(p\) -group for a prime \(p.\) On the other hand, Winterhof has shown that some known results on the non-existence of \((u,u\lambda ,\lambda )\) -difference matrices are extended to \((u,u\lambda -1,\lambda )\) -difference matrices. This fact suggests us that there is a close connection between these two cases. In this article we show that any \((u,u\lambda -1,\lambda )\) -difference matrix over an abelian \(p\) -group can be extended to a \((u,u\lambda ,\lambda )\) -difference matrix.     

SFT-stability and Krull dimension in power series rings over an almost pseudo-valuation domain

Let \(R\) be an APVD with maximal ideal \(M\) . We show that the power series ring \(R[[x_1,\ldots ,x_n]]\) is an SFT-ring if and only if the integral closure of \(R\) is an SFT-ring if and only if ( \(R\) is an SFT-ring and \(M\) is a Noether strongly primary ideal of \((M:M)\) ). We deduce that if \(R\) is an \(m\) -dimensional APVD that is a residually *-domain, then dim \(R[[x_1,\ldots ,x_n]]\,=\,nm+1\) or \(nm+n\) .     

Second eigenvalue of the Yamabe operator and applications

Let \((M,g)\) be a compact Riemannian manifold of dimension \(n\ge 3\) . In this paper, we give various properties of the eigenvalues of the Yamabe operator \(L_g\) . In particular, we show how the second eigenvalue of \(L_g\) is related to the existence of nodal solutions of the equation \(L_g u = {\varepsilon }|u|^{N-2}u,\) where \({\varepsilon }= +1,\) \(0,\) or \(-1.\)      

Recovering a Constant in the Two-Dimensional Navier–Stokes System with No Initial Condition

We deal with the \(2D\) -Navier–Stokes system endowed with Cauchy boundary conditions, but with no initial condition. We assume that the right-hand side is of the form \(\beta f_0+f_1\) , where \(\beta \in \mathbb {R}\) is an unknown constant. To determine \(\beta \) we are given a functional involving the velocity field \(y\) . First we prove uniqueness for the pair \((y,\beta )\) , via suitable weak Carleman estimates, and then we show the locally Lipschitz-continuous dependence of \((y,\beta )\) on the data.     

Compactness and sequential completeness in some spaces of operators

Let \(X\) be a completely regular Hausdorff space and \(C_b(X)\) be the Banach lattice of all real-valued bounded continuous functions on \(X\) , endowed with the strict topologies \(\beta _\sigma ,\) \(\beta _\tau \) and \(\beta _t\) . Let \(\mathcal{L}_{\beta _z,\xi }(C_b(X),E)\) \((z=\sigma ,\tau ,t)\) stand for the space of all \((\beta _z,\xi )\) -continuous linear operators from \(C_b(X)\) to a locally convex Hausdorff space \((E,\xi ),\) provided with the topology \(\mathcal{T}_s\) of simple convergence. We characterize relative \(\mathcal{T}_s\) -compactness in \(\mathcal{L}_{\beta _z,\xi }(C_b(X),E)\) in terms of the representing Baire vector measures. It is shown that if \((E,\xi )\) is sequentially complete, then the spaces \((\mathcal{L}_{\beta _z,\xi }(C_b(X),E),\mathcal{T}_s)\) are sequentially complete whenever \(z=\sigma \) ; \(z=\tau \) and \(X\) is paracompact; \(z=t\) and \(X\) is paracompact and ?ech complete. Moreover, a Dieudonné–Grothendieck type theorem for operators on \(C_b(X)\) is given.     

Optimal mass transport and symmetric representations of their cost functions

We consider Monge–Kantorovich problems corresponding to general cost functions \(c(x,y)\) but with symmetry constraints on a Polish space \(X\times X\) . Such couplings naturally generate anti-symmetric Hamiltonians on \(X\times X\) that are \(c\) -convex with respect to one of the variables. In particular, if \(c\) is differentiable with respect to the first variable on an open subset \(X\) in \( \mathbb {R}^d\) , we show that for every probability measure \(\mu \) on \(X\) , there exists a symmetric probability measure \(\pi _0\) on \(X\times X\) with marginals \(\mu \) , and an anti-symmetric Hamiltonian \(H\) such that \(\nabla _2H(y, x)=\nabla _1c(x,y)\) for \( \pi _0\) -almost all \((x,y) \in X \times X.\) If \(\pi _0\) is supported on a graph \((x, Sx)\) , then \(S\) is necessarily a \(\mu \) -measure preserving involution (i.e., \(S^2=I\) ) and \(\nabla _2H(x, Sx)=\nabla _1c(Sx,x)\) for \(\mu \) -almost all \(x \in X.\) For monotone cost functions such as those given by \(c(x,y)=\langle x, u(y)\rangle \) or \(c(x,y)=-|x-u(y)|^2\) where \(u\) is a monotone operator, \(S\) is necessarily the identity yielding a classical result by Krause, namely that \(u(x)=\nabla _2H(x, x)\) where \(H\) is anti-symmetric and concave-convex.     

Inequalities for zeros of Jacobi polynomials via Sturm’s theorem: Gautschi’s conjectures

Let \(x_{n,k}^{(\alpha ,\beta )}\) , \(k=1,\ldots ,n\) , be the zeros of Jacobi polynomials \(P_{n}^{(\alpha ,\beta )}(x)\) arranged in decreasing order on \((-1,1)\) , where \(\alpha ,\beta >-1\) , and \(\theta _{n,k}^{(\alpha ,\beta )}=\arccos x_{n,k}^{(\alpha ,\beta )}\) . Gautschi, in a series of recent papers, conjectured that the inequalities $$n\theta_{n,k}^{(\alpha,\beta)}<(n+1)\theta_{n+1,k}^{(\alpha,\beta)} $$ and $$(n+(\alpha+\beta+3)/2)\theta_{n+1,k}^{(\alpha,\beta)}<(n+(\alpha+\beta+1)/2)\theta_{n,k}^{(\alpha,\beta)}, $$ hold for all \(n\geq 1\) , \(k=1,\ldots ,n\) , and certain values of the parameters \(\alpha \) and \(\beta \) . We establish these conjectures for large domains of the \((\alpha ,\beta )\) -plane by using a Sturmian approach.     

Fundamental domains for properly discontinuous affine groups

We construct a fundamental region for the action on the \(2d+1\) -dimensional affine space of some free, discrete, properly discontinuous groups of affine transformations preserving a quadratic form of signature \((d+1, d)\) , where \(d\) is any odd positive integer.     

A New Topological Helly Theorem and Some Transversal Results

We prove that for a topological space \(X\) with the property that \( H_{*}(U)=0\) for \(*\ge d\) and every open subset \(U\) of \(X\) , a finite family of open sets in \(X\) has nonempty intersection if for any subfamily of size \(j,\,1\le j\le d+1,\) the \((d-j)\) -dimensional homology group of its intersection is zero. We use this theorem to prove new results concerning transversal affine planes to families of convex sets.